ESCAPE FROM MOGADISHU to Open 20th NYAFF

Spiritwalker (2021) 

The New York Asian Film Festival returns for its 20th edition in August, when it will open with the international premiere of Ryoo Seungwan’s action-thriller Escape from Mogadishu with Kim Yunseok and Zo Insung, which debuted in local theaters on July 28.

NYAFF announced some of this year’s major prize winners ahead of time, which will include both Yoon Jaekeun’s SF-thriller Spiritwalker, which will receive a Daniel A. Craft Award for Excellence in Action Cinema, and Bang Minah who will receive one of this year’s Rising Star Asia Awards.

Yoon Kyesang leads the cast of Spiritwalker, the story of a man who has lost his memory and switches bodies every 12 hours while he attempts to find out what happened to him. Though the film was first screened at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia last year, it will be the world premiere of a brand new cut at NYAFF.

Bang Minah, formerly a member of the popular K-pop outfit GIrl’s Day, has been receiving plaudits for her role in the indie film Snowball (2020), which debuted in the New Currents section of the Busan International Film Festival and is also screening at NYAFF.

Among other indie films on the docket for NYAFF this year are Jero Yun’s indie boxing drama Fighter (2020), which also screened at Busan last year, Lee Taegyeom’s indie drama I Don’t Fire Myself, which debuted at the Jeonju International Film Festival, and Lee Seungwon’s Jeonju Cinema Project Three Sisters (2020) starring and produced by Moon Sori.

Other features in the lineup include Lee Jongpil’s workplace drama SAMJIN COMPANY ENGLISH CLASS (2020), Kwon Ohseung’s horror film Midnight, and Min Kyudong’s feature-length version of The Prayer (2020), previously released as an episode of the wavve sci-fi anthology series SF8.